BORDER RAID

Hollywood could not have bettered it: 100 Gardai and 150 RUC in a single
swoop covering both sides of the border, a spate of arrests, searches of
offices, houses, boats, seizures of documents, money, and most pertinently
computers.

But more important than the dramatic operation were the two years of
inquiry that preceded it. The investigation into money laundering in the
border area began after the murder of the drugs baron Paddy Farrell in
1997, but as the inquiry proceeded the Criminal Assets Bureau and the Garda
Bureau of Fraud Investigation broadened their net and bided their time.

Then, preparations complete, they struck. The move was a classic of its
kind. And it was typical of the excellent work, on the ground and in the
backrooms, carried out since an earlier murder, that of Veronica Guerin in
1996.

One of the chief purposes of this work is to hit the crime lords in their
pockets. This can only be done by matching them in ingenuity, and following
the money trail along its tortuous paths.

But one swallow or even a dozen does not make a summer. The ease with which
funds can be transferred makes investigation immensely difficult. It can be
taken as certain that organised crime will find ever more cunning ways of
hiding their loot. The problem is not local or even cross-border, but
international.

This was recognised by the EU leaders at their recent meeting in Finland,
when they decided to initiate new moves to detect money laundering.
However, in cases involving the border region and locations within Northern
Ireland, there are special and all too obvious problems.

In this operation, to make one arrest the RUC had to go in by helicopter,
with British army backing. In parts of Belfast controlled by
paramilitaries, they are powerless to enforce the law. They will so remain
until the arrival of a political settlement and an acceptable police force.

Belfast's problems, however, are not unique. For all the efforts of the
last three years, crime lords still wield power in parts of Dublin. The
best way to attack them is to find and seize their wealth. But it still
remains necessary to remove the drug dealers and extortionists from the
streets.